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About the performer

Dick Van Dyke

DICK VAN DYKE has been a cherished fixture on the American scene for over forty years, beginning with his Tony Award-winning stage Broadway debut in Bye-Bye Birdie from which he segued into The Dick Van Dyke Show, the television classic which brought him three of his five Emmy Awards.

In a dazzling screen debut reprising Bye-Bye Birdie role, then went on to star with Julie Andrews in Walt Disney's classic Mary Poppins. Films that followed included ChittyChitty Bang Bang, Divorce, American Style, Fitzwilly, Cold Turkey, and Stanley Kramer's The Runner Stumbles. Meanwhile in television he launched The New Dick Van Dyke Show and much later, the long-running Diagnosis Murder.

He starred in thirteen variety specials Van Dyke and Company variety specials, winning two Emmy nominations for writing and a fourth award for performance in 1977. After an Emmy nomination for his dramatic performance in the ABC Television drama TheMorning After, he starred in the PBS presentation Breakfast With Les and Bess and Showtime's production of The Country Girl, followed by the TV movies Drop-Our Father, FoundMoney, Daughters of Privilege, and Wrong Way Kid, for which he received his fifth Emmy Award.

A guest role in Jake and The Fat Man led to the development of Diagnosis Murder in which he played the cheerful, crime-solving M.D. Mark Sloane for eight seasons on CBS. He has twice been reunited with Mary Tyler Moore, first in last year's PBS Hollywood Presents production of The Gin Game , and this year in The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited on CBS.

In addition to his Tony and Emmys, Dick has received the Dance Legend of the Year Award by the Professional Dancers Society of America [1999] , the 1998 Disney Legend Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Comedy Awards. The Dick Van Dyke Show was inducted into the Producers' Hall of Fame, and in 1995 Dick was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.